NBA lockout

Everyone is not on the same page in the NBA labor negotiations. The owners are not a unified front and neither are the players. I have heard from players willing right now to take a 50/50 split of basketball related income (BRI) — the league’s revenues — and get on with a season right now.…

Chris Kaman managed to express the thoughts and feelings of millions about the lockout on Saturday, through an artistic expression using a Halloween tradition. Saturday, Kaman posted this: I decided to express my feelings this Halloween weekend. This is what I feel about the lock out! http://t.co/NRuq4LLUSun Oct 30 00:52:05 via EchofonChris Kaman ChrisKaman And…

The New York Times reported Saturday on several crucial details of the new CBA deal that’s currently being discussed. Basically, if the structure holds once either side gets its collective head out of its backside, these are the provisions that are already agreed upon. So if the players cave and give in to 50/50 or…

One would think that after four months, the NBPA and NBA would be able to figure out how to split pie slices. But no. Talks blew up again Friday over the split of Basketball Related Income, BRI, the phrase that has become the scourge of fans’ existence as more games are cancelled. On the surface,…

We’ve known for a while that Miami Heat owner Micky Arison is a dove — he wants his team to start playing basketball again, he’d pretty much take the players deal on the table right now and roll with the season. As fans who want to see basketball, he’s our guy. Start the games. But…

David Stern was masterful Friday afternoon. He put on a frightful Halloween show for the NBA players watching at home. Certainly it was all spin at his press conference following another day of blown up labor negotiations. He spoke to the media for about 15 minutes (it was broadcast on NBA TV) and NBA union…

Even when you know it’s coming, it doesn’t make it any less painful. There will be no NBA games in November. David Stern said in his press conference following the dissolution of labor talks (again!) that all games through Nov. 30 would be canceled. That also means there will be no 82 game NBA season…

And the players keep dropping out the World All-Star Classic set to start in Puerto Rico Sunday (Oct. 30) like it was some hastily thrown together event that was never going to live up to the hype. The latest is Dwight Howard, the Orlando Sentinel reports. They spoke to his agent who confirms the news.…

There are times I feel like we are going a little Fox Mulder with the lockout, trying to find signs that it is about to end where no such sign exists. And then there are things that just hit you over the head. Like the emails sent to employees of the Nets and 76ers, as…

One thing we know will be in the new NBA labor deal is an amnesty clause — teams will be able to waive one player off the roster and wipe most (likely 75 percent) of his salary off the luxury tax and salary cap. (The player would still get paid the full amount.) This is…

If there was one thing I thought small market owners would fight to keep out of the new NBA labor deal it was the sign-and-trade. It’s what LeBron James and Chris Bosh had after-the-fact. It can be used to hold a smaller market hostage. The player gets his money and his ticket to a new team…

Whenever the NBA labor issue gets resolved — please be Friday, please be Friday — the next question becomes: When do we start? And how many games can we get in? That second part is tricky. Owners and players both would love to get in a full 82 games, for the exact same reasons there…

Throughout these NBA labor negotiations there has been a lot of focus on who is in the negotiating room. When it has been a small group led by Billy Hunter and David Stern, there has been progress. When Kevin Garnett or Paul Allen — or really any larger group — becomes involved things blow up.…

We are close. Very close. By Monday we could be talking about what the Heat/Lakers/Celtics need to do in free agency, not luxury tax details. There are real signs of hope. David Stern watched the NBA players’ union press conference Thursday from the back row of the room, and both he and union head Billy…

Friday could be the day. But if not Friday it may be this weekend — the NBA season is close to being saved. Maybe not all of it, but most of it, enough to have an asterick-free, credible NBA season. Progress through two more days has everyone, even the participants, hopeful. NBA Commissioner David Stern says…

If there seems to be one consensus among fans and pundits as the discussion of a post-lockout NBA schedule picks up steam, it is this: The NBA season is too long. It is 82 games, as it has been since most of us can remember. As it has been since most of us were born.…

This is good. There is a growing sense of optimism from both the NBA owners and players sides that a deal is there to be had — and now they are both actually working hard toward it. Less than 11 hours after they walked away from the bargaining table at 3 a.m. Thursday morning, representatives…

Kevin Murphy is smarter than you. And me. And David Stern and Billy Hunter and everyone else in the negotiating room. There’s no objective way to prove that, but do you have a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant?” Are you the guy the people who wrote “Freakanomics” think is the smartest person they know? That’s Murphy.…

It is one of the key reasons the Kings are still the Sacramento Kings. Sacramento Mayor walked up to the NBA’s owners — not the Maloof brothers that own the Kings, but the rest of them — and said he could bring in $10 million more in local corporate sponsorship. Then he went out and…

There may be optimism, but there is still a lockout. I’m sick of writing about BRI splits and punitive luxury taxes. I miss basketball. So this new ad from Under Armour works for me right now. It features Brandon Jennings, Kemba Walker and Derrick Williams, but it’s the message that works. In that vein, I pass…

Thursday morning’s 4 a.m. press conference following a marathon 15-hour negotiating session between the NBA and its players took a few interesting turns. Specifically when discussion turned to how much of an NBA season there would be if a deal could be reached soon. (That’s a big if, there’s a lot of ground to cover…

I’ve got to say this for the owners and players, when they sit down to talk they don’t get up. NBA owners and players union representatives met for more than 15 hours in New York Wednesday — going until 3:20 a.m. Thursday morning. The two sides will get back at it on Thursday at 2…

It will be the biggest summer showcase yet — what the promoters are humbly calling a “showcase of unprecedented proportions” — with a galaxy of NBA stars. Just ignore the few black holes. Even after some defections there will be a World All-Star Classic tour, starting in Puerto Rico on Oct. 30 (Sunday). From there…

You know that big planned international tour of players going all over the globe? The World All-Star Classic? The legs may have just come out from under it. LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul all have pulled out of it at the last minute, tweets ESPN’s Chris Broussard. This was on top of Derrick…